Elf Animation Upgrades

Production of artwork for the game by regular contributors takes place here.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

User avatar
artisticdude
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 2424
Joined: December 15th, 2009, 12:37 pm
Location: Somewhere in the middle of everything

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by artisticdude »

AI wrote:As for the running, I think he's still landing a bit hard. Bending his knees further on landing might help.
wayfarer wrote:I will save me and you the overdraw but runners tend to lean a bit forward and hops a bit up and down. The whole body works while running.
I also get the feeling that he should be moving up and down more during the animation. Right now I almost get the feeling that he's semi-gliding, like he's not putting his full upper body weight into the step. :hmm:

As far as the archer's attack anim, beyond the 'dance move', would it be feasible for her to bring her right arm closer to her body during the preparation and fling it out during the swing, as though she were 'pushing' the rest of her body with her off arm? Currently she appears to stick her right arm out during the preparation and bring it closer to her body when she swings, and I can't help but feel this detracts from the overall momentum of the swing.
"I'm never wrong. One time I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken."
Atz
Art Contributor
Posts: 313
Joined: August 21st, 2008, 2:22 am

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by Atz »

I think it looks a less dance-y if the non-sword arm comes across the body close to the chest on the windup rather than being flung out backwards, the sword is drawn back a little further, and she leans forward a bit on windup. Kinda like this:
archer+female-melee-attack2_3.gif
archer+female-melee-attack2_3.gif (9.7 KiB) Viewed 14698 times
I think the lean and the bigger windup make it look a little more forceful. Pulling the arm in at the start is necessary because having an arm flung out slows down your rotation - it makes more sense to keep your arm close and spin quickly while making the slash, then fling it out at the end to slow yourself down and prevent overbalancing.
User avatar
Girgistian
Art Contributor
Posts: 668
Joined: April 5th, 2008, 8:23 pm
Location: The lands of perkele

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by Girgistian »

Atz wrote:I think the lean and the bigger windup make it look a little more forceful. Pulling the arm in at the start is necessary because having an arm flung out slows down your rotation - it makes more sense to keep your arm close and spin quickly while making the slash, then fling it out at the end to slow yourself down and prevent overbalancing.
Sure. Keep in mind though, that we're looking for forceful and visually impressive animations rather than realistic kinetics and fightin'-moves.
Jetrel wrote:have her do a complete-circle instead
Thumbs up for that, the stop is a little awkward after such a swing. :P Looking at that I'd like to see her pull her sword-hand against her chest during the spin, right after she finishes the initial strike.
For the dark gods!
Atz
Art Contributor
Posts: 313
Joined: August 21st, 2008, 2:22 am

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by Atz »

Girgistian wrote:
Atz wrote:I think the lean and the bigger windup make it look a little more forceful. Pulling the arm in at the start is necessary because having an arm flung out slows down your rotation - it makes more sense to keep your arm close and spin quickly while making the slash, then fling it out at the end to slow yourself down and prevent overbalancing.
Sure. Keep in mind though, that we're looking for forceful and visually impressive animations rather than realistic kinetics and fightin'-moves.
My point was that having the arm out makes it look like the torso rotates more slowly and at constant velocity, which looks less forceful and more like you're just twirling around with your arms out.
User avatar
Jetrel
Posts: 7242
Joined: February 23rd, 2004, 3:36 am
Location: Midwest US

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by Jetrel »

Can't decide for or against on the presence of the elf fighter's quiver. Input is welcome, there.

These are WIPs, mostly to show my process; naturally they'll get the same shading love as the rest of the gang in the final steps of the thing. I've included a very early WIP of the fighter, for those who care to know, that was about the 5-15min stage. Naturally, the "pareto principle" applies in force, with the rest of the detailing guzzling up the other 80% of the time.
Attachments
elves-north.png
elves-north.png (9.76 KiB) Viewed 14322 times
Play Frogatto & Friends - a finished, open-source adventure game!
User avatar
Zerovirus
Art Contributor
Posts: 1693
Joined: July 8th, 2009, 4:51 pm

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by Zerovirus »

Voting against, if only for the reason that it provides more visual distinction from the archer.
User avatar
artisticdude
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 2424
Joined: December 15th, 2009, 12:37 pm
Location: Somewhere in the middle of everything

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by artisticdude »

I'm not a big fan of the quiver, for the same reason Zero gave above. But if it's felt that it's really necessary to give the fighter a quiver, perhaps giving him a smaller, less noticeable quiver at his belt (I'm assuming that both his bow and his arrows would be smaller and shorter than the ones carried by the archer) would be preferable. Then we'd still have the quiver, but it would be less of a focal point and would be less likely to cause confusion between the fighter and archer.

Just a thought.
"I'm never wrong. One time I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken."
User avatar
doofus-01
Art Director
Posts: 4121
Joined: January 6th, 2008, 9:27 pm
Location: USA

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by doofus-01 »

The quiver could be OK, the sword vs. bow is distinct, the archer's hat helps too. It probably depends upon what the other levels look like. For example, the elf ranger holding a sword or the marksman without a hat.
BfW 1.12 supported, but active development only for BfW 1.13/1.14: Bad Moon Rising | Trinity | Archaic Era |
| Abandoned: Tales of the Setting Sun
GitHub link for these projects
User avatar
wayfarer
Art Contributor
Posts: 933
Joined: June 16th, 2005, 7:07 pm
Location: Following the Steps of Goethe
Contact:

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by wayfarer »

Keep the quiver but change the alighnment a bit. Perhaps around 80° maybe ?
This girl, this boy, They were part of the land. What happens to the places we used to tend?
She's a hard one to trust, And he's a roving ghost. Will you come back, will you come back, Or leave me alone?

-Ghost Fields
User avatar
artisticdude
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 2424
Joined: December 15th, 2009, 12:37 pm
Location: Somewhere in the middle of everything

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by artisticdude »

I was recently playing around with creating a running animation for the ruffian, using Jetrel's earlier blocking as reference (hence the ruffian's head rather than the EF's). I ended up doing a couple edits to the animation, so I thought I'd share my edit here. The biggest things I was aiming for were to have him lean more throughout the animation and to give him more vertical movement. Although he might need to lean even further, and perhaps there's too much vertical movement going on in that second step. :hmm:

Thoughts?
Attachments
run.gif
run.gif (4.21 KiB) Viewed 13635 times
Jet's earlier animation
Jet's earlier animation
fighter-run3.gif (4.01 KiB) Viewed 13635 times
"I'm never wrong. One time I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken."
User avatar
Sapient
Inactive Developer
Posts: 4453
Joined: November 26th, 2005, 7:41 am
Contact:

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by Sapient »

When you are running with a heavy object (such as a sword) held aloft in one hand, you probably won't swing the weighted hand down that far. Other than that, looks nice (in my non-artistic opinion).
http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/User:Sapient... "Looks like your skills saved us again. Uh, well at least, they saved Soarin's apple pie."
User avatar
Jetrel
Posts: 7242
Joined: February 23rd, 2004, 3:36 am
Location: Midwest US

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by Jetrel »

:hmm: Further iteration:

- I think I ought to redo the sword's movement, toning down the amplitude of its swing, and changing the phase to fit more nicely with the shield.

- I really have no idea how to improve the leg+torso motion. I can't tell if I'm being hypercritical, or if there's some issue I'm intuitively seeing is wrong, but am unable to articulate what it is.

Barring any insight on the latter, once I finish the former issue, I'll move onto finishing this off, and blocking the NE anim.
Attachments
fighter-run4.gif
fighter-run4.gif (4.62 KiB) Viewed 13245 times
Play Frogatto & Friends - a finished, open-source adventure game!
User avatar
Jetrel
Posts: 7242
Joined: February 23rd, 2004, 3:36 am
Location: Midwest US

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by Jetrel »

Did some further attempts at the sword, nothing else was changed:

I'm liking #7 the best, in fact that one might be good to go.


(That this kind of overhaul took only 10min per try is probably a poster-child example of Why We Block™.)
Attachments
fighter-run5.gif
fighter-run5.gif (4.59 KiB) Viewed 13233 times
fighter-run6.gif
fighter-run6.gif (4.54 KiB) Viewed 13233 times
fighter-run7.gif
fighter-run7.gif (4.61 KiB) Viewed 13233 times
Play Frogatto & Friends - a finished, open-source adventure game!
Atz
Art Contributor
Posts: 313
Joined: August 21st, 2008, 2:22 am

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by Atz »

Seven looks the best to me. Although, now that the sword movement has been reduced, I'm concerned that the shield arm may be rotating a little too much. Maybe keep his right elbow closer to the body? Other than that it looks good.
User avatar
Jetrel
Posts: 7242
Joined: February 23rd, 2004, 3:36 am
Location: Midwest US

Re: Elf Animation Upgrades

Post by Jetrel »

Sleepwalker wrote:If you could send me your workfile and I will have a stab at it soon... What I can see right now is that the animation could use a little more bounce in the step... And perhaps putting more weight/time on the leg/arm swings. Uhh, how to explain... Like increase the time that his limbs are in a stretched out position. Thus making him have more flying strides i think.

I like the seventh animation the best too, btw.

It does look pretty good, but i'd like to try something.
Awesome. Don't worry about any of the detail-rendering, but if you could help fix the motion in the blocking, that would rock. :D
Attachments
fighter-run8.psd.zip
(26.15 KiB) Downloaded 806 times
Post Reply